The Tolkien Under Age Club

[Thinlómien]

Originally Posted by ninja91

You're right, Thinlomien. Children of Hurin will come up before I know it, and I be out at Border's once again picking up another book to add to the I-have-yet-to-read pile...

Which books do you already have there? (Tell me and I'll tell which you should read first... )

[ninja91]

The Icewind Dale Trilogy
The Dark Elf Trilogy
Chronicles of Chrestomanci
The Chronicles of Narnia
Sphere
Congo
The Hunter's Blades
The Dark Tower

Whoo, I'll be busy the next 15 years...

[Thinlómien]

Whoo, I'll be busy the next 15 years...

Not, if you're quick. Start with Tolkien. (Yes, I'm obsessed. )

I can recommend Narnia and have heard lots of praise for Dark Elf trilogy and Black Tower.

[ninja91]

I'll take your advice! I am sure that The Sil will turn out well..(it is Tolkien... how can it not!?) I just have to finish up Eragon because the movie is said to come out in the near future. Also, I put in Sphere and Congo by Michael Crichton. I will go with those last, because fantasy is almost always better.

[Volo]

Sil is my favorite book, if I were you, I'd toss Eragon out of the window and start reading Sil... I was really shoked when I read Eragon, and even more shoked when I heard that they were making a film out of it... Eragon is a book that has most of the things mentioned here that I have read... Well, ok, after LotR, but there sure is a difference.

[ninja91]

Eragon is definitely not the best book I have read, thats for sure. But when I am already 300-something pages into it, I might as well close the window and curl up by the lamp...

[Firefoot]

Come on, Eragon isn't that bad...

For myself, I enjoyed it. It may not be the best piece of fantasy out there, but it's not as bad a book as some people make it out to be. The biggest problem I had with it was the ridiculously hard to pronounce names. Names that look like five or six syllables and are supposed to be three.

[Imladris]

Originally Posted by Volo

Sil is my favorite book, if I were you, I'd toss Eragon out of the window and start reading Sil... I was really shoked when I read Eragon, and even more shoked when I heard that they were making a film out of it... Eragon is a book that has most of the things mentioned here that I have read... Well, ok, after LotR, but there sure is a difference.

All stories (good, bad, and mediocre) have at least some of the attributes in that link, so having those attributes is not a reason to toss a story out the window (unless you'd like purposeless stories to come in vogue or Mary Sues as main characters, etc)...it's only tossworthy if those things are written poorly and made into little cardboard puppets to prance across a stage saying,

Look at me look at me! I'm the [insert Epic Element of choice]

The Sil will turn out well..(it is Tolkien... how can it not!?)

Well, even good writers have bad eggs. Just the way it is. I remember reading the Sil a year or two ago. I hated it because it got caught up in details and, in my opinion, seemed to loose sight of the story (a chapter that was a geography lesson? ).

[Thinlómien]

Originally Posted by Imladris

Well, even good writers have bad eggs. Just the way it is. I remember reading the Sil a year or two ago. I hated it because it got caught up in details and, in my opinion, seemed to loose sight of the story (a chapter that was a geography lesson? ).

Yes, not all Tolkien-lovers love the Sil, but it's certainly worth a try. (I love it as much as LotR, so I'd say it'd be a great loss not to read it.) When you've tried it, you can come to love it (like me and so many others) or to not like it (like Imladris here and some other people). Neither opinion, of course is more valuable.

[ninja91]

Originally Posted by Imladris

Well, even good writers have bad eggs. Just the way it is. I remember reading the Sil a year or two ago. I hated it because it got caught up in details and, in my opinion, seemed to loose sight of the story (a chapter that was a geography lesson? ).

I know that the Sil reads almost like an Arda history textbook, but if I dont read it like its an assignment, I'll most likely end up enjoying it. A lot.